Houdini & Doyle

The drama is light-hearted, perfect-for-summer fare. It’s a procedural that relies on its setting--you can expect other historical figures such as Bram Stoker and Thomas Edison to make appearances--and comic banter between the three main characters to make it attractive to viewers.

Whatever their era, Houdini and Doyle are the show. More interesting than the cases they worked on in the two episodes I've seen, they start out more as frenemies than friends, but it's a relationship with promise.

It’s not necessarily bad, understand, just surprisingly underwhelming considering it’s called Houdini & Doyle. One expects fireworks; instead we get consternation.

The sets and costumes are great. Now, the mysteries need to rise to the occasion.

There are decent performances buried in Houdini & Doyle (especially the always-good Weston) and the design values aren’t bad for network TV, but the writing isn’t memorable enough for the program to stand out in an increasingly-crowded landscape.

They may sound like a jokey law firm, but any amusement to be had in the fictionalized odd-couple crime solving partnership of Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle is sadly short-lived in this stilted Canadian-British import. [2-8 May 2016, p.19]

The two lead actors do their best to feign exasperation with each other, and with Liddiard’s cop Adelaide. But the dialogue isn’t clever--it’s more on the level of strenuous declarations.